810 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 80, 1888. 
joining them, as the title of this paper might at first sight 
induce our readers to suppose; for it is our object in this 
paper to try and lend a helping hand to farmers who are 
well nigh overwhelmed by the combined evils of poor crops 
and low prices. We have seen among reports of farming 
prospects and practice, that in one part of Sussex Wheat will 
not average three sacks per acre; in another part of the same 
county the yield is given as three to four sacks an acre less 
than last year, and a very poor-looking sample. We are 
also told by a farmer writing from a northern county that a 
friend who took a farm in the south of England, when leading 
out manure on to his grass land this spring, was told by his 
neighbours that he would poison the land, as it was only ten 
years previously since it was manured ! Surely the “ friend ” 
must have known that the remark was satirical! Yet the 
northern farmer gravely calls attention to it as one of the 
varied systems of treating grass lands.” 
Now we have had considerable experience of corn-growing 
and the management of grass land in Sussex, and it enables 
us to assert that a Wheat crop of three or four sacks an acre 
is a result of bad or careless practice, and not a peculiarity 
of the season. We may also assort that no farmer who 
understood the management of grass land could possibly 
suppose the negligence implied by no manure for ten years 
to be worthy of the designation of a system. Keep well 
within your means, we would say to every farmer. If you 
have £500 of capital, let fifty acres be the maximum area of 
your farm, and you would probably find forty acres answer 
better. £10 an acre is the lowest amount with which it is 
possible to farm well; £15 an acre is so much better that if 
it were possible we would like to make it compulsory for that 
sum to be applied to every farm as it is taken in hand. But 
there must be no ignorant practice, no blind follow-my-leader 
work ; rather should there be an intelligent comprehension of 
the nature of the soil and its requirements; of the composi¬ 
tion of manure, and its economical application to the soil; 
of the most suitable crops and how to cultivate them in order 
to obtain the highest possible results. These are all matters 
of primary importance, and of which there is much deplorable 
ignorance even now, for there can be no question that three- 
fourths of the farmers of this country are ignorant of many 
things of vital importance in their calling. 
Let us take the soil to begin with, and inquire how many 
men in any given locality could answer such simple questions 
as What is alumina ? What is silica ? What is the origin of 
clayey soils, of gravelly soils, chalky soils, peaty soils, alluvial 
soils, marshy soils, loamy soils ? and how may any or each 
of them be improved ? Of what do the organic or inorganic 
elements of the soil consist ? What is an element ? What 
becomes of the elements of the soil under cultivation ? Then, 
too, what is known of the first principles of drainage ? It 
would probably occur to the most ignorant that water must 
not be allowed to accumulate in tho soil so as to render it 
sodden, or, as it is more generally termed “ wet.” But what 
is known generally of the action of water left in the subsoil 
at a foot or two beneath the surface ? Of capillary attraction ? 
of the low temperature arising from it ? Of the importance of 
keeping the water-table at a given distance from the surface 
as a preventive ? 
Of plant growth and plant food how much is known ? 
Vegetable physiology and agricultural chemistry are perhaps 
rather alarming terms for a plain farmer, but even he must 
acknowledge that under the simple designation of plant 
growth and plant food he finds matters of such importance as 
to merit his best attention. A wide field for intelligent 
observation opens before us here. Seed germination, root 
and branch growth, the influence of air, rain, and solar heat. 
What proportion of nutriment is derived from the air, what 
from the soil ? In what form is it absorbed by the plants, 
and how is it absorbed ? We are thus led on by a natural 
sequence to the all-important question of manures. We learn 
that both from the atmosphere and the soil plants absorb 
food in a gaseous state. An analysis of the plants shows us 
what are the proportions of nutriment absorbed by them, 
and analyses of the soil show us wherein it is deficient in 
fertility or plant food. If we are asked, How is a farmer to 
analyse the soil ? we reply that nothing is more simple. A 
few trial crops and intelligent observation ought to enable 
him to master the condition of his soil and to understand its 
requirements without having recourse to a chemist’s 
laboratory. Drainage, clean soil, mechanical division of the 
soil, and a correct and economical application of manure to 
it, was the sum and substance of a lecture which we once 
heard a learned professor give to farmers. He is a famous 
chemist, yet it is to Nature’s great laboratory that he goes 
chiefly for instruction. Trial plots, where he can ascertain 
the correct proportion of chemical manures requisite to 
obtain the best results with all farm crops, are in use year by 
year. Close observation, a careful record of results, and sound 
common sense combine to render him a skilful leader and 
safe guide. Can farmers do better than follow his 
example ? 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
When home-grown seed is to be used some early threshing of corn 
becomes necessary ; apart from this, it is desirable to put off threshing 
till the pressure of autumn work is over. Every day of fine weather is 
now eagerly taken advantage of for land work; ploughs, cultivators, 
rollers, and harrows are all kept going to eradicate weeds, which are burnt 
at once as they are drawn out of the soil. Much of the land has been so 
dry, especially heavy land, that ploughing has told upon the horses. 
Steam tackle proves a great help just now ; if rightly applied throughout 
the year it should enable one to dispense with from a third to a half of 
the ordinary number of horses. Taking the ordinary computation of 
£25 as the cost of keeping a horse per year, it is an easy matter to ascertain 
what are the advantages on the Bide of steam cultivation. Chemical 
manures are being procured for winter corn, it being our custom to apply 
a half-dressing at the time of sowing and another half-dressing in spring. 
The quantities and sorts used per acre now are \ cwt. nitrate of potash, 
f cwt. nitrate of soda, |cwt. steamed bone flour, £ cwt. superphosphate, 
and j- cwt. coprolite. For general practice this is recommended as a safe 
mixture, which we have found to answer well in different formations 
both in Sussex and Suffolk. Do not bury the manure deeply, but apply 
it either upon the surface or just before the last turn of the harrows. The 
dry weather has given so severe a check to growth that the pastures are 
becoming somewhat bare, and we aie glad to withdraw the sheep from 
them to Cole seed. Rye Grass, Mustard, Sainfoin, and Turnips. Such 
crops in sheep-farming are invaluable now ; without them we should be 
at a loss for green food, or, rather, we should have to run the pastures so 
hard as to leave them quite bare for winter. We can hardly lay too much 
stress upon the importance and value of green crops in the economy of 
farm management.* They afford a provision of food to which we gladly 
turn upon emergency, and when not wanted they are ploughed in to store 
the soil with nutriment. Farm work is so subject to the influence of 
weather that a broad margin has frequently to be allowed in our calcula¬ 
tions and plans even for the immediate future. Only a few weeks ago 
“ keep ” of all kinds appeared so abundant as to justify a rather large 
expenditure upon sheep. If, however, we had trusted only to our 
meadow and park lands, the sheep would now be failing in condition, and 
some portion of the stock sold at a loss. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40’' N.; Long. 0° 8' O'' W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
1886. 
a co a> a) 
R l> 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
a . 
O x3 
3 a 
Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Rain 
September. 
3. 
S3 Zi as 
Dry. 
Wet. 
So 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Sunday . 
19 
Inches. 
30.069 
deg. 
57.2 
deg. 
54 3 
N.E. 
deg. 
57.4 
deg. 
70.6 
d«g 
47.7 
deg. 
105.6 
deg. 
41.7 
In. 
Monday. 
20 
29.919 
55.6 
52.1 
N.E. 
67.7 
G62 
50.9 
110.6 
44.2 
— 
Tuesday. 
21 
29.665 
58.9 
5 i.4 
E. 
57.2 
68.3 
51.4 
103.8 
43.7 
— 
Wednesday .. 
22 
29.043 
55.3 
49.0 
N.E. 
58.0 
63 8 
47.2 
103.8 
43.8 
— 
Thursday ... 
23 
30.057 
49.6 
42.1 
N.HJ. 
56 8 
61.1 
43.3 
105.3 
36 8 
—- 
Friday. 
24 
30.162 
52.3 
48.1 
N. 
53.3 
58.8 
47.1 
77.3 
37.8 
— 
Saturday .... 
25 
30.155 
50.4 
47.3 
E. 
56.0 
59.7 
47.9 
77.9 
4G.G 
0*033 
29.953 
51.2 
49.9 
57.1 
64.1 
47.9 
97.8 
42.1 
0-033 
REMARKS. 
19th. —Fine and bright throughout. 
20th.—Fine and generally bright, but dull at times in the morning. 
21st. - On the whole a dull cool day, but with a little sunshine in morning. 
22nd.-—Fine, bright, and cold, with occasional threatening elouds. 
23rd.—Cold, with alternate cloud and sunshine. 
24th.—Dull and cold. % 
25th.—Cool, with uuiform light clond. 
A fine, generally bright, and rainless week ; the rain entered to the 25th having fallen 
in the early hours of the 26th. This rain terminated an absolute drought of fourteen 
days. Temperature exactly the average, and about 6° below that of the preceding 
week.-G Symons. 
